simple ideas for a dowel center drilling jig

[pierhogunn]

Anyone have any ideas for a simple to build, simple to use center drilling jig for drilling a 1/4" hole down the dead center of a 3/4" Dia dowel?

[gwyneth]

How long is the dowel, is it for a hand-held drill or a drill press, and how many dowels do you need to do?

[scorrpio]

1. Take a piece of 2x4, and clamp it to your drill press table.
2. Chuck a 3/4" forstner and drill about half-deep.
3. Without moving a thing, swap in a 1/4" bit and drill same spot all way through.

There you go, a jig.

Stuff the dowel into 3/4" hole, and use the 1/4" as a guide.

[LCHIEN]

The biggest problem is getting the drill centered.
Here's one way to mark the center perfectly:
Clamp a block of wood to the DP table, this is your jig base.
Drill a 3/4" hole using a forstner bit, about 1/4" deep
Leaving it clamped in place, change the bit for a 1/4" bit, and drill a hole approx another 3/8" deep in the center of the 3/4" hole.

Place a 1/4" dowel center in the 1/4" hole.
If you don't know what that is, here's a pic and a link, lots of people sell them.
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=783



Now insert the end of the dowel into the hole and push hard, the dowel center will mark the precise center of the dowel end. Now you can clamp the marked dowel vertically in your DP, use a brad point bit to drill the hole in the end using the center dimple.

While you make the jig, you may wish to go ahead and make similar marking holes for 1", 5/8", and 1/2", dowels.
After you're done you can put remove the dowel center and put it back in your dowel center kit.
Dowel centers are very useful and inexpensive, you should have a set in your tool box.
among other uses, they'll let you drill perfectly mating dowel holes into a second piece of wood.

[pierhogunn]

difficulty #1 No DP

difficulty #2 Dowel 6" long

Dan

[LarryG]

I assumed you had no drill press, otherwise you'd have no real need for a jig.

Do you need the hole to go all the way through the 6" length of the dowel? Since you list the length as "Difficulty #2," I'm guessing it must.

No lathe either, eh?

[Tequila]

difficulty #1 No DP

difficulty #2 Dowel 6" long

Dan

Can I ask what the dowel is going to be used for? Maybe there's a way other than drilling that hole.

[Thom2]

This is a REALLY roundabout way:

start with a piece of 3/8"x3/4" flat stock
take a 1/4" core box/round nose bit down the center of it
cut 6" pieces off and glue up groove to groove
round off all 4 corners with a 3/8" roundover

the last corner is gonna be the hardest to roundover .. perhaps a better idea would be making the blanks 8" long and then cutting to 6" after rounding over a length of 6", that way you'd have 2" of straight flat support before the bit.

[LCHIEN]

Sorry, without a drill press, it'll be hard to drill straight down the middle of anything.
The six inches isn't a problem, just get a $50 drill press (used or HF cheapie on sale).
You'll be surprised how useful they are.

[gwyneth]

Sorry, without a drill press, it'll be hard to drill straight down the middle of anything.
The six inches isn't a problem, just get a $50 drill press (used or HF cheapie on sale).
You'll be surprised how useful they are.

And they still make stands for handheld drills that give them some of the functionality of a DP--Grizzly sells two different ones for $30 each.

But I think one of my jig books has something that would work...I'll look.

[LCHIEN]

And they still make stands for handheld drills that give them some of the functionality of a DP--Grizzly sells two different ones for $30 each.

But I think one of my jig books has something that would work...I'll look.

for $30 for those Kludges, I'd rather take my chances with a $50 DP.
Ultimately much better.

[mpc]

A modified version of scorrpio's jig will work with a hand-held drill assuming you can find drill bits long enough to do the job:

1: Get a block of wood. About 2 inches thick.
2: Using a 3/4" Forstner bit drill half way through it.
3: Use the 1/4" bit to finish drilling all the way through the block. The Forstner will leave a little nub in the center of it's hole to guide the 1/4 bit. You'll have to take care to be as straight as possible with the 1/4" bit though.
4: Now you can insert the dowel from one side of the jig and your 1/4" drill bit from the other side. You'll have about 1" of jig material as a guide.

Another option: a poor-man's mini-lathe. Get some 1/4" metal rod stock, about 8 or more inches long (if your workpiece is 6 inches long), and make a pair of "V" blocks. Buy dowel stock larger than a quarter inch in diameter and drill through it as best you can. Stuff the metal rod through it, rest it on the V-blocks, and spin it by hand while you sand/file it down to the right diameter. If the hole was drilled off-center you'll be able to sand it to compensate. Slow and tedious, but do-able.

mpc

[leehljp]

The ONLY way you are going to get a dowel dead center all the way down the center of a 6 in long 3/4 inch dowel is with a lathe. Now, a few of the guys above might be able to and argue with my statement, but these guys that "might" be able to do that have years of experience to work with.

Without experience, the best way is with a lathe - if you want dead center all the way.

I would suggest finding someone with a lathe and asking them for help. It should not take but a few minutes at the most, but you might need to go to Home Depot and buy one of their long bits. The problem with a drill press is that 1. you must have a great jig to hold the dowel precisely, and 2. you won't know if you had bit wander until it exits. This happens far less in a lathe.

[pierhogunn]

Okay, I do believe that MPC, and Lorring have my vote for the simple jig idea,

I have a 12" long 1/4" bit for this

will a 3/4" spade bit work, or does it have to be forstner?

if a spade bit will work, here is my quick extension of the idea extended in MPC's post, its a 6" long piece of PT 4x4

with a 3" long bore hole to steady the drill bit and guide it in

and 2 set screw holes for some 4" deck screws that I have to hold the dowel very securely in place

[LarryG]

I hate being a doomsayer, but Loring and Hank are right. If you mean dead center of the dowel literally, that's just not going to happen with any handheld method (unless it's a pure accident). Your final hole is only going to be as straight as the holes you drill in the jig, so you're just transferring the basic problem from one element to another.

If you need end-to-end accuracy of, say, only 1/8", you can probably do it. Better than that ... good luck.